So I follow this woodworking guy on YouTube…

It’s relaxing, it’s beautiful, and watching an expert at work is inspiring. And it’s inspiring me to want something like this…

I lied to you. Well, if you’re a recurring reader that is.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how a messy desk is creative. The gist of the story is that having a limited amount of mess on your desk lets you see unexpected stuff and make new neural connections, i.e. generate ideas.

Oh, and I said that smart people have their desks more cluttered.

That last part’s true. The first part is true but there’s a better way. (more…)

Imagine that you’re the star of your very own reality show. It’s a tasteful show, more of a dramatic documentary, really. It’s about how an average person overcame their problems and became a superstar. Everything you see, every opportunity you encounter, every possible action you can take is put there for that specific reason.

That cute guy on the corner? Potential love interest. The new boss? A fresh ear for your improvement ideas. That accident you suffered? Just enough pain to give depth to your creative streak. Everything you see, everything you do, has been put there by the show’s producers in order to give you the highest chances at becoming as great as you can in every area of your life. And yeah, you’re not supposed to know. But you’ve figured it out.

Imagine what would happen. Imagine what you’d do if you knew that, no matter what happened, it was put there to be an educational, interesting step on your way to your heart’s desire. All you needed is to begin and you will succeed. Not immediately, that would make for poor TV, but with some, in hindsight, dramatically correct obstacles.

Knowing that you’ll succeed, would you be more willing to try? Would you be more willing to do more, risk more, achieve more? Would you start? Start right now? (more…)

Take a look at what happens when you wake up in the morning. I’m pretty sure that you do most of visiting the toilet, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, dressing, making breakfast. It may not be exactly this but I’m going to make you a bet: no matter what you do in the morning you do the same things in the same order every day.

That’s because your morning routine is a ritual.

I don’t mean a chanting, dancing and sacrificing small animals type of ritual. I mean a habitual ritual, something that, once triggered, leads to a series of actions in an unchanging sequence. (more…)

Imagine you’ve got a company. You’re sitting in your office when you realize that it’s become quite cramped. And that storage room next door really isn’t all that useful. So you google the best deals on pneumatic hammers and start taking the wall down.

Or not.

Unless you’re in construction chances are you’d call someone who is. And that’s the way to do it – find someone who’s an expert and get them to do the job. But when it comes to our hobbies and private life we’re reluctant to do that. Monetizing what we’re doing outside of works somehow feels wrong.

I’m no better. I was brought up in the tried and true male “Ugh-go-bash-dinosaur-on-the-head-himself” format. Yeah, that’s fine in a subsistence economy but I’m not growing my own food (actually I am, but that’s another subject altogether).

But that’s going to change. It has to change if I want to have the time to design and playtest. (more…)

Someone once told me, “When your hobby becomes your work, it’s time to find a new hobby.”  This couldn’t be more right.  And I couldn’t have been more wrong to ignore it.

– Thomas Henshell

When you turn a hobby into a career you’ll note that some things come with the territory, things you may not want to have there. Pressures. Must dos. And suddenly you don’t have a hobby anymore, you have a job…

Read at your own peril and don’t let it kill your dreams: Thomas Henshell by way of Gamasutra